The field of the present invention relates to behavioral conditioning. In particular, methods for subliminal and near-subliminal conditioning, and for eliciting responses so conditioned, are disclosed herein.
The human nervous system processes external source data at very high rates, perhaps as much as several billions of bits per second (several Gbit/sec). A majority of such processing occurs at a subconscious level, but may nevertheless guide the body in its maintenance and control functions. The associated neurological data processing “subsystems” typically call for the attention of the human conscious “executive system” only as needed, such as when something is awry or when the conscious executive has requested a special report. One may appreciate the advantage of such sub-conscious processing in light of the observation that the highest rates of conscious information processing have been estimated to be less than 100 bits per second, even as low as 25 bits per second.
The visual subsystem operates like other human processor subsystems in that (i) it employs subconscious processing, and (ii) much of what is done in response to the images processed by the visual subsystem is not “conscious” activity (e.g., avoiding walking into walls, moving out of the way of approaching objects, and so forth). The evident capacity of the visual subsystem to accommodate high-speed processes and translate them into performance instructions without burdening the executive consciousness is remarkable, and is exploited in the exemplary embodiments disclosed or claimed herein.
It has been estimated that the human visual subsystem processes information at rates that may reach many hundreds of millions of bits per second (i.e., 100 s of Mbit/sec). A majority of this visual processing must necessarily occur at retinal or subconscious levels. It has been estimated that on the order of 100:1 processing compression and certain forms of motion detection occur even before the visual data is passed through the optic nerves. Of this compressed data, only a small subset of the original retinal-image information is used to achieve significant conscious or unconscious results. Focus control, gain control, pupil control, and other visual task functions proceed reliably and smoothly without “executive” conscious intervention.
Visual observables are prioritized and dealt with in a hierarchal fashion. For example, when eyeglasses have a speck of dust or a smudge on them, the effects they produce on such detailed eye functions as reading text are overlooked and bypassed. This does not necessarily mean that the visual subsystem has not taken note of them; it simply means that they have been relegated to a classification where they do not deter consciously mandated focused-image objectives.
One reason that dust and smudges, up to a point, do not impair functions such as reading and driving a car, is that the location of the plane of the eyeglasses is too close to the cornea for the dust and smudges to be focused onto the retina. They typically appear only as blurs and shadows. These blurs and shadows may be noted, but a reader or driver does not respond to them in the same manner as he responds to printed letters and road features that are focused onto the retina.
It has long been the practice of information and display technologists to assume that essentially all optically-based information presented to the eye should be focused to a sharp, well-defined image. This is the case, for example, with written and graphic presentations in virtually all visual display systems, such as movies, television, computer displays, printed displays, and the like. It has also been a tenet of prior practice to assume that eyeglasses, eyewear, windows, or similar substantially transparent devices should be clear and unchanging (exceptions being photochromic media used in light-adaptive eyewear or welding masks). Such prior limitations are disregarded in the embodiments disclosed or claimed herein. The scope of the present disclosure encompasses use of diffuse, non-imaged visual stimuli (e.g., a purposely out-of-focus image, or an otherwise diffuse, non-imaged visual light pattern) impinging on the human (or animal) retina to impart information that may influence a human (or animal) subject in a subliminal, or near-subliminal, manner.
It is reasonable to posit that all subliminal processing is experience based. That may be why previous attempts at subliminal inducements, such as interspersing frames of cola images in movies, have failed. The frames are not “seen” due to integration, nor do they provide a relevant experience. In contrast to these failed historical endeavors, the embodiments disclosed or claimed herein provide a relevant associated experience with each subliminal training event.